2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[smallchange]

15 hours ago, Catpaw said:

I'd probably describe my genre as some kinda blend between psychological realism and surrealism as well—the two always end up muddled together in my fiction, I guess. I've been very interested in detailed character-work lately, whereas a few years earlier I think I was more focused on language and image.

(Also yes, agreed, I'm always curious what other people write, if others feel comfortable sharing! So if someone is reading this and is feeling inclined to share as well, please totally do so!)

Tbh your project sounds fascinating to me so I hope you keep working on your novel over the next months! I too have been too stressed recently to write much (for obvious reasons lol), but I'm also looking forward to writing in the next months without having to think about a deadline... Feels like such a luxury to contemplate, after grinding for months for these apps!

Thanks, you too! Agree about character-work; I'm a huge imagery person and used to do a lot of screenwriting, where dialogue and visuals do so much of the work. I guess I'm just growing into writing fiction honestly and figuring out how to do character-work in fiction is very different but (for me at least) way more rewarding. Would love to share work tbh if you're up for it - feel free to dm me. Sounds like we might have some stuff in common!

[womanonline]

i’m so ready to go to sleep so i can wake up and see if there’s any results tomorrow 

[snottlebie]

1 hour ago, exvat said:

I hate to imagine it, but it does seem likely that some MFA programs might get shut down completely in all this chaos. Hopefully nobody here would be affected. My coworker's hearing rumors that her own university's Clinical Psych grad program may get the ax, and I'm like... If therapist factories aren't even safe, then poet factories for sure aren't...

There is a google doc floating around on gradadmissions Reddit that lists schools that have frozen or reduced grad school admissions or certain programs. WashU is listed (in the unverified section of the document) as  pausing admissions from the School of Arts and Sciences, which would explain the delay. 

[rafikiman]

10 hours ago, Chex said:

Hi, I know you mean well but I urge you to reconsider posting those links here. There's a reason no one else has posted them before. It's a private group and the moderators explicitly asked that the links not be shared elsewhere. People fill out their data there with the understanding that access to it is closed and confidential. And since every member has access to in-group conversations/interactions and can reach out to the moderators to correct or confirm something, there's more internal trust, which makes the results there several degrees more reliable than, for instance, GradCafe's results page. You'll also notice that a few people filled out the form with their legal names. It's not cool to post that on a public page without their consent.

If the post you made here is approved, please consider editing the links out. And if you still want to privately share a link to someone who's not in the group, please only share the link to the view-only data, not the editable Google form. In that case, a DM would be better than a public post.

Gotcha, thanks for the heads up.

I hadn't thought about all of that. Won't be publishing the links

[Mystic_Sunshine]

5 hours ago, pananoprodigy said:

Dear MFA Gods: If I get into my top choice I vow to give anyone who asks me free notes on their SOPs and samples next cycle. 

So mote it be

So mote it be 

So mote it be

Can I claim this too?

MFA gods...pls

[DakotaSt]

I got a call today from West Virginia University letting me know i'm accepted for CNF! Its fully funded and am really excited that it is three years instead of two like some of the other places I have been admitted to. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about WVU's program? I'm trying to get as much info as I can and would love to hear others experience there. 

[KennyK]

1 hour ago, snottlebie said:

There is a google doc floating around on gradadmissions Reddit that lists schools that have frozen or reduced grad school admissions or certain programs. WashU is listed (in the unverified section of the document) as  pausing admissions from the School of Arts and Sciences, which would explain the delay. 

@snottlebie was Notre Dame on there? Are you able to check for please?🥺 

[everything bagel lover]

7 minutes ago, KennyK said:

@snottlebie was Notre Dame on there? Are you able to check for please?🥺 

I know you didn't at me, but I just found it and they're not on there. A lot of stuff targeted is in the sciences (which is scary), but it doesn't seem to be affecting MFA or arts programs generally other than WashU St Louis because it's their whole Arts & Science program. Some programs are having their whole grad programs targeted like Penn. You can find the spreadsheet pretty easily if you go to the gradadmissions subreddit.

Also, CONGRATS @DakotaSt!!! ❤️ 

[exvat]

17 minutes ago, DakotaSt said:

I got a call today from West Virginia University letting me know i'm accepted for CNF! Its fully funded and am really excited that it is three years instead of two like some of the other places I have been admitted to. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about WVU's program? I'm trying to get as much info as I can and would love to hear others experience there. 

Woohoo! Congrats! 🎉

[Lady Gladys]

20 minutes ago, KennyK said:

@snottlebie was Notre Dame on there? Are you able to check for please?🥺 

Notre Dame's program isn't undergoing any changes.

[pananoprodigy]

2 hours ago, DakotaSt said:

I got a call today from West Virginia University letting me know i'm accepted for CNF! Its fully funded and am really excited that it is three years instead of two like some of the other places I have been admitted to. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about WVU's program? I'm trying to get as much info as I can and would love to hear others experience there. 

CONGRATS!!! Three years is the dream! Don't know much about this one but the campus looks absolutely stunning!

[bbeacham]

Do schools send out emails for interviews in batches? I saw on the 2025 Draft that someone got an interview for Hunter (the only school I applied to) already and now I'm thinking I probably won't get one...

[Catpaw]

31 minutes ago, bbeacham said:

Do schools send out emails for interviews in batches? I saw on the 2025 Draft that someone got an interview for Hunter (the only school I applied to) already and now I'm thinking I probably won't get one...

Oof. Yeah, I can't think of why they'd batch e-mail requests for interviews, so I'm going to take this as a soft R.

I'm really sorry you didn't hear back.

[Tuxedocat]

5 hours ago, DakotaSt said:

I got a call today from West Virginia University letting me know i'm accepted for CNF! Its fully funded and am really excited that it is three years instead of two like some of the other places I have been admitted to. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about WVU's program? I'm trying to get as much info as I can and would love to hear others experience there. 

Congrats!!! 🎊🎉🎈 

[Sumire11]

5 hours ago, DakotaSt said:

I got a call today from West Virginia University letting me know i'm accepted for CNF! Its fully funded and am really excited that it is three years instead of two like some of the other places I have been admitted to. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about WVU's program? I'm trying to get as much info as I can and would love to hear others experience there. 

Congrats man. Could I ask you a favor, please? Could you ask if fiction results are out as well?

[Mr. Scribblo]

1 hour ago, Sumire11 said:

Congrats man. Could I ask you a favor, please? Could you ask if fiction results are out as well?

i didn't apply to wvu, but someone i know did for fiction and got in. from what they told me, it looks like all fiction acceptances went out on sunday--they also received a general email from a third-year student addressed to all accepted students. i'm really sorry if this isn't the news you were hoping for. wishing you the best, and i hope you hear some good news soon.

[Sumire11]

6 minutes ago, Mr. Scribblo said:

i didn't apply to wvu, but someone i know did for fiction and got in. from what they told me, it looks like all fiction acceptances went out on sunday--they also received a general email from a third-year student addressed to all accepted students. i'm really sorry if this isn't the news you were hoping for. wishing you the best, and i hope you hear some good news soon.

Thank you, it means a lot. Thank you so much for letting me know. If you haven't gotten any good news yet, I hope you gwt it as well.

[vilum]

happy monday everyone! are we expecting news from nyu this week? when did acceptances go out in previous years?

[Prosaic Ioniser]

8 hours ago, Lady Gladys said:

Notre Dame's program isn't undergoing any changes.

Is it possible this is due to their open "religious affiliation"? This ended up being the reason I didn't apply after reading about the student cohort there on reddit, it was also my first reason to post here because I was so taken aback by that in the application process 😅 It's looking really bleak with some of the schools... I've been holding my breath for WashU, it's a program that really speaks to me, so the fact that it might be cut... then again as an international I'm starting to think my status might also be extremely precarious in the US if I was to get in anywhere? 

Not that anyone has the answers to this but it's starting to make me super anxious. This has been my dream for so long.

[kpoetrottenapplecore]

is university of arizona out with poetry yet? i haven't seen anything from them

[decayingballads21]

hey so I saw 2 UNLV notifs in draft a while ago but none since then, anyone have any idea if they’re still notifying people or if they’re done? last year there were some acceptances that came out in mid March so I’m just wondering 

[everything bagel lover]

1 hour ago, decayingballads21 said:

hey so I saw 2 UNLV notifs in draft a while ago but none since then, anyone have any idea if they’re still notifying people or if they’re done? last year there were some acceptances that came out in mid March so I’m just wondering 

UNLV is so hard to predict tbh, they've been known to do secret waitlists, especially with CNF and to radically spread apart both acceptance notifs and rejections. It looks like this year they called two poetry admits the same day so I'm guessing that maybe they are doing it by genre? But I have no idea

 

Edit to addendum because I don't want to spam the forum: AHHHH I scream with anticipation. I'm crossing my fingers and my whole body for good news regarding a GTA position from CSU, maybe today since someone on Friday got offered a position. I feel so close to the finish line but it's still just out of my grasp and it's making my stomach churn. Hoping for a flood of good news for all of us today.

Edited February 24 by everything bagel lover
addendum

[Cosmicinkwell]

31 minutes ago, everything bagel lover said:

 AHHHH I scream with anticipation. I'm crossing my fingers and my whole body for good news regarding a GTA position from CSU, maybe today since someone on Friday got offered a position. I feel so close to the finish line but it's still just out of my grasp and it's making my stomach churn. Hoping for a flood of good news for all of us today.

Fingers crossed... Still no elaboration on my CSU portal message, which is painful since that could mean anything.

[everything bagel lover]

3 minutes ago, Cosmicinkwell said:

Fingers crossed... Still no elaboration on my CSU portal message, which is painful since that could mean anything.

I've got my fingers crossed for you!! 🕯️ Please CSU 🕯️ Give us a spot and funding please 🕯️

[Tinky C. Clown]

notre dame fiction interviews have gone out